Abstract

Climate change poses significant threats to global agricultural output, affecting the livelihoods of millions of farmers, particularly in Ghana’s semi-arid Upper East region. Here, millet and sorghum producers face increasing challenges due to changing climatic patterns. Smallholder farmers frequently employ adaptation strategies in response to these conditions. However, despite their efforts, these adaptations often yield unsatisfactory results due to various challenges. Identifying and understanding these difficulties is crucial for developing successful strategies to improve smallholder farmers’ resilience and sustainability. To investigate further, a cross-sectional survey design with multi-stage sampling was employed to select 150 farmers for structured interviews. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Principal Component Analysis. Respondents perceived climate change trends highly (3.64), while the extent of adaptation decisions employed by farmers was moderate (2.89). Barriers such as personal production resources, infrastructure, support mechanisms, and institutional challenges significantly hindered sorghum and millet farmers' adaptation efforts. Notably, the personal productive resources barrier emerged as the most significant impediment to farmers' ability to adapt to climate change. To ensure successful adaptation, improvements in financial and labor resources, as well as better accessibility to extension services, are essential.

Key words: Sorghum and millet farmers, adaptation barriers, financial barriers, irregularity of extension service.